It appears as if Sam Allardyce is on the verge of making Lamine Kone his first signing as Sunderland manager, with reports in France claiming Sunderland have agreed a fee with Lorient for the Ivory Coast defender.
According to L'Equipe, Sunderland have agreed a fee of 'several million Euros' for the 26-year-old defender. Although Sky Sports claim that, despite the club having genuine interest in Kone, a bid has yet to be made.
With Allardyce recently resorting to using three central defenders, a new arrival was desperately needed in that position due to the club only having Wes Brown as senior back up to John O'Shea, Sebastian Coates and Younes Kaboul, and highly-rated youngster Tom Beadling only just returning after an injury lay-off.
Kone has been a regular for Lorient this season and has had scouts from several Premier League sides watching him in action, with Allardyce himself present for Lorient's 2-1 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last month. The player's agent Mark McKay admitted that interest is mounting in the player, who he believes would be a perfect fit for the Premier League;
There is mounting interest in Lamine and a number of Premier League clubs have been watching him for some time now.
I believe several sides are set to watch him in action when Lorient play Paris Saint-Germain in the first game after the international break.
Lamine is fast, strong and athletic and would be ideally suited to the style of play in the Premier League.